An In-depth Look At Energous, Its IPO, And Its Disruptive Approach To Wireless Power

updated on January 28 to provide more detail on Tom Iwanski's departure from Energous's management team

George Holmes had decided he was done with wireless power companies when a friend asked him to check out a little startup based in Pleasanton, CA. “It’s the best wireless power deal on the planet,” his friend said.

Holmes, a veteran sales executive, had left a top job at Lucent Microelectronics (now Agere Systems) to work with smaller companies, including two wireless power startups. He had a knack for picking companies and shaping sales teams that delivered triple-digit growth. But the wireless power companies hadn’t taken off, and Holmes thought he knew why.

“If you can’t power four devices simultaneously at fifteen feet, then you don’t have anything,” he bluntly told Michael Leabman, the founder of Energous, which at the time was called DvineWave, after he finally agreed to make the call.

Holmes thought he was ending the conversation. No one had been able to develop a workable system to send wireless power to smartphones at a distance. The only commercially viable solutions involved placing a phone directly on a pad. Companies like Intel and Qualcomm were struggling to transmit power a few inches so that the transmitter could be hidden underneath a desk.

“I think I can do that,” Leabman said quietly. Holmes was dumbfounded. Then Leabman explained.

Michael Leabman, CTO and founder of Energous demonstrates how to deliver power over Wi-Fi

Leabman, a soft-spoken engineer, is one of those very smart people who manages to combine genuine decency with relentless drive. Starting as an undergraduate at MIT, Leabman spent more than a decade learning everything he could about electromagnetic waves. His knowledge wasn’t just theoretical. Over the years, he has launched companies that delivered better WiMAX and offered broadband Internet service to aircraft in flight and cruise ships at sea. Energous was his fourth venture. Based on a foundation of mathematical algorithms developed over more than a decade, Energous was Leabman’s biggest and boldest idea yet.